Tuscaloosa News (Tuscaloosa, AL), June 11, 2007

Worried about high health care costs and reduced services? Wonder why health insurance is so expensive, or why your family doctor no longer delivers babies?

Dr. William Plested, president of the American Medical Association, recently spoke out against the damage being done to health care by the rampant threats of malpractice lawsuits (Financial News and Daily Record, May 22, 2007). He sees such malpractice threats as the major crisis in medicine today.

A new research study by Dr. James McQuillan and Hovannes Abramyan of the Pacific Research Institute documents shocking facts. Their article in The Detroit News (May 2007) summarizes these findings. Excerpts follow:

“… The basic facts about America’s medical liability crisis are well-known. Doctors are being forced to relocate or retire, hospitals and clinics are closing, medical services are being slashed and patients are being deprived of vital care… Lawsuit abuse raises health care costs in the United States by a staggering $124 billion a year. That’s the same size as the Iraq war supplement bill just passed by Congress … ”

“ … Fearing litigation, doctors across the country have resorted to defensive practices. They order far more costly tests and procedures and make more specialist referrals than their expert training would actually deem necessary … ”

“ … The needs and interests of their patients aren’t driving physicians to perform these extraneous services. They’re simply protecting themselves from potential lawsuits brought on by predatory tort lawyers … ”

They conclude: “Remember all of this the next time you hear personal-injury lawyers posturing as defenders of patients’ rights and professional accountability. Far too often, tort attorneys are serving their own interests at the expense of others. And everyone else is left to pay.”

My impression is that the most destruction scam occurs when personal injury lawyers and plaintiffs file false allegations of malpractice against a physician, hospital or clinic. These lawyers and their plaintiffs know that medical facilities, physicians and insurance companies often settle out of court with a monetary offering for the supposed “damaged” to the plaintiffs. They do this because of extremely high costs of long-term litigation and potential damage to their public image. Such settlements occur frequently when the allegations are designed to be inflammatory and the plaintiff’s attorney promotes media coverage of such false accusations.

In decrying abuse of malpractice lawsuits, Dr. Plested protests it “ … goes after the most qualified people we have … ”

We need to recognize situations in which false charges are made for monetary gain, patients’ deprived of the care of a physician upon whom they depend, and responsible physicians’ reputations ruined.

Thelma Vaughan Mueller, MSW, Ed.D., is associate professor emerita at the University of Alabama. Reach her by e-mail at thelmamueller@webtv.net.